PROFILE OF ≠KHOADI
//HOAS CONSERVANCY
NAME: ≠Khoadi //Hoas Conservancy – meaning “elephant corner”
NOMINEE
DESCRIPTION: Community-based Organization
LOCATION: Kamanjab District
SIZE: 364 000 hectares
DATE OF
REGISTRATION:
TRIBAL GROUP: Damara/Nama with minority Herero, Ovambo and San
REGISTERED
MEMBERS: 1943 (heads of household – representing almost 10,000 people)
NUMBER OF
VILLAGES: 4 main settlements – with people widely distributed on surveyed farms in 8 “leagues” (=farming districts)
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INITIATIVE
DESCRIPTION
The unique feature of this conservancy is that it has adopted an integrated approach to natural resource management, bringing together livestock, rangelands, wildlife and tourism into one management system, coordinated by a conservancy committee and supported in the field by community environmental shepherds, as opposed to community game guards. This integrated approach is spearheading and testing new, more appropriate mechanisms for community diversification, and attempts to avoid having the sectoral approaches of government and other support organisations imposed on them, by placing themselves in the controlling seat. This integrated pilot approach has been accepted by the Ministries of Environment & Tourism, and Agriculture, Water & Rural Development, with the two Permanent Secretaries having signed a Memorandum of Co-operation to promote the testing of this approach. To help implement this approach the conservancy has developed an integrated natural resources management plan. Different components of the plan include:
Base line inventory -Boundaries
-Roads
-Infrastructure
-Settlements
-Water
-Vegetation
-Geology
-Archeological sites
Wildlife information
The conservancy employs 10 Environmental Shepherds to monitor natural resources in their area and to serve a communications function between residents and the committee. They monitor the wildlife distribution and movement on day to day bases, check on waters, prevent poaching and stock theft and generally serve as the community’s eyes and ears.
A system called the “Event book System” has been developed to capture key monitoring information. This information is consolidated on a monthly basis and fed to the Conservancy Committee, and then on an annual basis. Each year, the consolidated information is reviewed by the Committee, and decisions on management, quota applications and other components of the natural resource base and its management are discussed. This process results in a well functioning “adaptive management” approach, which is essential in arid, highly variable ecosystems.
Annual game counts are conducted each year. The data are used for the application of quotas to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. Hunting quotas are issued based on the game counts and the day-to-day records of the Environmental Shepherds. These quotas are then tendered to professional hunters, and the resulting funds are paid into a community trust account. Estimated species numbers are used to work out trends, which influence the conservancy management plan.
Zonation
of the area is an important tool, which is of great help to the conservancy in
developing systems in managing the area.
The following shows the three main areas the conservancy is divided in:
- Tourism concession area -black
- Livestock and multiply-use area -red
- Main agriculture area -green
- Exclusive wildlife area -blue
The management plan also makes
provision for rangeland and livestock management plans, water management and
tourism option plans. Work on most of these has been completed, and the
conservancy is currently building its second tourism campsite.
Conflict between people and
wildlife. As wildlife numbers have increased, so have the number of conflicts
between wildlife and people – especially elephants. People, their livestock and
wildlife compete for limited resources, in this semi-arid area particularly
water. The desert-adapted elephant is relatively common in the conservancy – up
to 230 animals have been recorded at one time, and the area probably supports,
at different times of the year, up to 400 different individuals. The
conservancy has made a real effort to live in harmony with its elephants, by
adopting a suite of strategies including:
setting aside a large exclusive
area for wildlife,
establishing a locally run
compensation scheme – but only if farmers have implemented certain measures
such as protecting water installations with well maintained rock walls,
establishing special elephant and
wildlife water points, using solar water pumps, to keep animals away from farm
and household water points,
erecting electric fencing around
vegetable gardens, homesteads and water points in sensitive areas,
developing community tourism
camping sites near (but not too close) to water wildlife points, to derive income
from wildlife protection, and
having environmental shepherds
trained to monitor elephant (and other wildlife) movements, to pre-empt
problems ahead of time.
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≠KHOADI //HOAS CONSERVANCY BIODIVERSITY IMPACTS:
The proactive approach of this Conservancy has created a remarkable transition in the attitude of its members towards wildlife. The increased awareness around the values of wildlife, combined with management steps taken by the Conservancy to create an 80,000 hectare exclusive wildlife/tourism zone and to put in place mitigating actions to reduce conflict between people and wildlife is facilitating a rebound in wildlife populations. Wildlife numbers in the ≠Khoadi //Hoas conservancy have been well documented for the past few years. Historic information at this local level is less well documented, with the exception of elephants. The following wildlife numbers have been recorded during a census in 2001:
Elephant 86, but up to 200 (less than 20 in 1980s)
Black Rhino 2 – expanding range into the wildlife area of the conservancy
Springbok 2,300
Oryx 800
Kudu 1,300
Giraffe 140
Ostrich 550
Mountain 300
Poaching incidents have declined to almost zero over the past three years, and people take a real pride in their wildlife, the conservancy and their conservation efforts.
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POVERTY REDUCTION:
The conservancy capitalized on its valuable wildlife populations by introducing trophy hunting in 1999, when it received its first cash revenues of N$45,000. Thereafter, returns from the trophy hunting revenues have increased on an annual basis to N$97,00 (N$90,000 in cash and N$7,000 in employment) in 2000 and N$144,504 (N$136,504 in cash and N$8,000 in employment) in 2001. At present, meat distribution and pensioner food donations are currently the main benefits, though there is an amount of some N$200,000 currently held in the community bank account. The conservancy contributes to its running costs, and pays salaries, vehicle running costs, community meetings and related overheads.
More recently, the conservancy has undertaken a tourism options survey, in which a number of good sites have been identified for tourism activities at different levels, ranging from high cost joint venture lodges, to self-catering bungalows to camping sites. To date, one camping site has been completed, a second is under construction and a marketing exercise is underway to interest prospective investors in an up-market lodge development.
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PARTNERSHIPS:
The development of this
conservancy has been a highly collaborative process involving a strong
partnership between government ministries (i.e., Ministry of Environment &
Tourism, and Ministry of Agriculture, Water & Rural Development), NGOs
(Namibia Nature Foundation, Desert Research Foundation of Namibia, and WWF),
and development programmes (i.e., Namibia Programme for Control of Desertification, GTZ-funded
Sustainable Animal and Range Development Project, and USAID-funded Living in A
Finite Environment Project).
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SUSTAINABILITY:
In 2002 the conservancy is covering 25% of its operating costs, and this will increase as its income grows. A process is now underway to tender a site in the conservancy for a lucrative joint-venture lodge development. This lodge, when completed in mid-2003, should generate in excess of N$200,000/year in cash revenues, making this conservancy fully self-financing by the end of 2003. The conservancy is also successful in leveraging match funding – from the national programme to combat desertification, from the animal and rangeland development programme and from the game products trust fund.
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CONTACT INFORMATION:
≠Khoadi //Hoas Conservancy
Atten: David /Goagoseb – Chair
Kamanjab